Study on the Properties of YSZ Electrolyte Fabricatedby Plaster Casting Method

The yttria stabilized zirconia(YSZ) electrolyte is fabricated by plaster casting method.The densities of the obtained samples increase as the sintering temperature increases.The relative density of the sample sintered at the temperature of 1550 is 93%,and it can be gastight when the sample thickness is more than 0.2mm,therefore it can be used as the electrolyte of a solid oxide fuel cell.Pure cubic flourite structure can be obtained after the samples are sintered above the temperature of 1300.The SEM mesuring results show that the crystal grain size increases and the hole size decreases as the sintering temperature are raised.The conductivity of the samples are measured.At the same temperature,the grain conductivities of all the samples are almost the samo,but the grain boundary conductivities are different.It can be calculated that the active energy of conduction of the grain and that of the grain boundary of the samples sintered at 1300,1400 and 1550 are 0.82,0.66,0.86 and 0.98eV respectively.